The European Union condemned this Saturday the use of heavy weapons and the “indiscriminate” bombing of civilian areas in eastern Ukraine, and warned of “staged events” that could be used as a pretext for a possible military escalation.
“The EU condemns the use of heavy weapons and the indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas, which constitute a clear violation of the Minsk agreements and international humanitarian law,” said the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, in a statement. statement on behalf of the Twenty-Seven.
He recalled that the “massive build-up” of Russian armed forces in and around Ukraine remains “a cause for great concern,” and urged Moscow to “reduce tension through a substantial withdrawal of military forces from the proximity of the borders of Ukraine”.
Borrell assured that this escalation is now “compounded by the increase in ceasefire violations along the line of contact in eastern Ukraine in recent days.”
In this sense, he said that the EU supports the proposal of the special representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to convene an extraordinary session of the Trilateral Contact Group in order to “calm the current tensions”.
The head of community diplomacy stressed that the EU is “extremely concerned” that “the events staged, as recently noted, could be used as a pretext for a possible military escalation.”
He assured that the EU “is also witnessing an intensification of information manipulation efforts to support such objectives.”
In this context, he expressed strong support for the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, whose monitors play a “key” role in de-escalation efforts, stressing that the mission “must be able to fulfill its full mandate without restriction.”
Likewise, Borrell stated that the EU “does not see reasons” for the accusations coming from the areas controlled by non-governmental organizations in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions about a possible Ukrainian attack.